Means for utilizing waste heat in kilns.



No. 673,520. Patented May 7, l90l. F. E. 8:. E. H. FREY. MEANS FOR UTILIZING THE WASTE HEAT IN KILNS.

' (Application filed Aug. 20, 1900.) I (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet l.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK E. FREY AND ERNEST H. FREY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

MEANS FOR UTILIZING WASTE HE AT IN KILNS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 673,520, dated May 7, 1901.

Application filed August 20, 1900. Serial No. 27,395. kNo model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, FREDERICK E. FREY and ERNEST H. FREY, citizens of the United States, and residents of Cleveland, county of Cnyahoga, State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Utilizing the Waste Heat in Kilns,of which we hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Our invention relates to means for utilizing the waste heat in the products of combustion from ceramic kilns to furnish heat for the generator which supplies steam for running the machinery used in pressing and forming the ware or for any other machinery adjacent to the plant.

Our invention is exemplified in the accompanying drawings and is hereinafter described, and explicitly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a plan view showing four kilns, a generator, and a smoke-stack with the connecting-fines and intermediate heat-chamber required to complete our invention. Fig. 2 shows an end. elevation of the same. Fig. 3 shows a side elevation of the same. Fig. 4 is a plan view showing a modified and preferable form of arrangement of the various portions of the device. Fig. 5 is a vertical section'of the same on line a; at, Fig. at. Fig. 6 is a vertical section of the lower portion of Fig. 3 on line y y, Fig. 1, and considerably enlarged to show details more clearly; and Fig. 7 is a plan view in section on line 2 a, Fig. 6.

Heretofore the gases which form the waste heat from the combustion of the fuel in ceramic kilns have not been separated into gases which are useful for fuel purposes and those which are not, and the useful gases employed continuously to generate steam for running the machinery of the brick plant or other machinery and the other gases of a noxious charactersuifered to go to waste in a general stack. In order to economize this heat and employ it to generate the steam required for this purpose, we employ the arrangement shown in the drawings, wherein- 1 1 are the kilns.

2 2 are underground fines from the kilns leading into the central heat-collecting chamor dampers 8 are closed and the valves 9 are open the products of combustion from the kilns will be drawn at once to the chimney, and when the valves 8 are open and the valves 9, leading to the stack, are closed the products of combustion will be drawn into the heat-collecting chamber and thence through the flue or passage 5 to the steam-generator. The chimney of this generator is preferably made higher than the chimney of the smokestack, so as to draw readily thereto, and the steam thus generated can be led off through the steam-pipe 11 to the engine which drives the various brick pressing and forming machinery commonly employed for that purpose.

A boiler with vertical fines is shown in the figures; but any suitable form of boiler may be employed that may be desired.

It will be understood that the products of combustion cannot be utilized as fuel from all the kilns at the same time. When the kilns are first started, the gas is too full of moisture gathered from the drying ware to serve as fuel and the clay employed in the composition of the ware is often too full of sulfur to answer the purpose of fuel, since it will corrode the iron in the generator; but the kilns are fired in succession, and after the heat accumulates to 200 or 300 Fahrenheit it is well adapted to pass directly into the generator, since the fines leading from the kilns where the combustion is incomplete are first closed from the heating-chamber and the heat therefrom passed directly to the smoke-stack,while only the fines leading to the more heated kilns and those commencing to cool are opened to the heat-chamber and generator. In this way usually two or more kilns will be in condition for direct communication with the generator, and they are successively placed in communication therewith as the products of combustion become suitable for fuel, thus providing a continuous supply of fuel for the generator.

In Fig. l the kilns are shown too close together, to admit of placing the Smokestack, heat-chamber, and generator between them. Hence we form a rectangular chamber exterior to the group of kilns and place the smokestack and generator conveniently near. In Fig. 4:, however, we show the preferable arrangement of the devices where the smokestack is centrally placed in the group of kilns and the heat-collecting chamber is placed annularly around it. One fine leads therefrom to the generator, which is placed at one side between two kilns. The different portions of the device may be placed wherever desired for convenience or to accommodate the arrangement of old kilns. The action of the various parts, however, remains the same.

It will be seen that the apparatus just described can be employed in connection with kilns for any purpose, as for brick, porcelain, or other plastic materials.

The fines 2 are placed underneath the kilns, so that they can be adapted to all forms of kilns and will take away the heat which hitherto has been wasted by radiation.

The exact shape of the chamber 3 for collecting the gases is immaterial to this invention, provided the same function remains. It might possibly be elongated sufficiently to require the use of a fan to insure circulation, but would have the same utility.

Having described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire'to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In combination with a series of kilns provided with a common stack, and lines from the several kilns leading thereto, of means for separating the products of combustion from the kilns which can. be utilized as fuel, from the noxious gases, and utilizing them continuon sly to generate steam, consisting of, a chamber communicating with the said flues from the said kilns, dampers in said chamber arranged to cutoff severally said lines from said chamber, a steam-generator communicating with said chamber, and a stack over said generator, substantially as described.

2. The combination with a series of kilns, of a common smoke-stack, fines connecting the several kilns with the stack, a chamber, connecting with the several flues, dampers in said chamber connecting with the several fiues, and dampers in the fiues between the said chamber and stack, a'steam-g'enerator communicating with the chambenand astack upon the generator higher than the common stack, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FREDERICK E. FREY. ERNEST H. FREY. Witnesses:

WM. J. SHAW, WM. M. MONROE. 

